Wednesday, August 10, 2011

German Court blocked Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 blocked in Europe

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will have to be removed from sale across Europe following a judgment in a German court.

The tablet, which launched in Britain last week, must now be removed from shelves and Samsung must stop marketing it. According to some retailers, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 became the fastest-selling tablet since the iPad 2 when it launched in Britain.

The Regional Court of Dusseldorf has granted Apple a preliminary injunction against the sale and marketing of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 across all of Europe except the Netherlands. It is possible to apply for a pan-European injunction in any country which, if upheld, covers all of the EU. The judge backed Apple’s claim that Samsung’s tablet had infringed on its intellectual property and copied elements of the iPad 2.

While Samsung can appeal against the judgment, the injunction will still stand in the meantime. Any appeal would be heard in around four weeks' time and would be heard by the same judge.

Intellectual property analyst Florian Muller said that Apple had a separate lawsuit underway in the Netherlands. He wrote in a blogpost: "The exception of the Netherlands is due to the aforementioned separate legal proceeding in that country. That exception relates only to Samsung's Korean parent company, not to the German subsidiary."

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the latest tablet computer from the Korean manufacturer. The original version of the Galaxy Tab was a 7-inch tablet but this year’s model adopts a similar screen size to the iPad and is marginally thinner than the iPad 2.
An Apple spokesman said: "It's no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas."
A Samsung spokesman said the company could not comment on legal proceedings.
The is the second injunction that Apple has obtained against Samsung’s rival tablet. The Australian launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was delayed indefinitely last week after Apple filed a complaint with the Federal Court of Australia.
Apple sued Samsung in April this year for infringement of patents and trademarks; a few days later, Samsung issued a counter-claim.